My trip to Dowsing & Reynolds #designupnorth

I took a little trip yesterday to pick up some fabric lighting cable for a project i’m doing. It involves this:

An emergency exit light box. I picked it up for £2.50 from a charity shop last month. Had no idea if it worked, or if I could even “remodel” it, but I love a challenge. Aka. Giving my OH something else to re-wire.

Light boxes are springing up everywhere at the moment, typography is HUGE right now and interchangeable letters in said light boxes are even HUGER. (Is that a word?). Especially when they nail that nostalgic vibe of old light up cinema signs.

Lightbox UK

Not like this one obviously. I don’t even drink beer. It makes me pull a really awful face. More like this one from Goodwin & Goodwin.

This pulls a lot of my loves together in one big light up box:

Lighting

Typography

Vintage

Industrial

Iconic phrases, sayings, mantras

I want some of this. I’m gona make my own. First things first, I need a flex to wire into the box. Which gave me a great excuse to bob down to Dowsing & Reynolds.

Originally selling vintage light bulbs, Leeds based business Dowsing & Reynolds has grown rapidly since 2013, now selling fabric lighting cable, ceiling lights and designer lighting accessories. Also offering some of their own designs and even branching out into unique home decor.

“Dowsing & Reynolds is all about home décor with an edge. Beautiful and bespoke lighting products, feature wallpaper, on-trend clocks and phones.”

How cool is that?

James and Ally, the husband and wife team behind Dowsing & Reynolds have poured their heart and soul into this business and it’s clear from their paired back office and warehouse surroundings that they love all things industrial, vintage, salvage and design. And lighting of course.

“Each aged steel domed cage light shade is aged for 28 days – rather like a good steak.”

They have also perfected the perfect recipe for making rust, which took a few attempts by all accounts and is now top secret. Not really. Just being dramatic. The 28 day aged steel domed cage lamp, is hand made making each one unique.

Scaffold shelving. And rows and rows of goodies.

You can never have too much swag, bulbs or cage lights.

“Art is another passion of James’ and he commissioned Scoph to put a street art mural on the wall of the Mill where we’re based.”

Y’all know I adore art. I’ve written so many posts about art already. Always good to see local artists being commissioned by businesses, Scoph, being based a few miles away from Leeds, in Sheffield. You can’t deny the link between creativity and productivity. The Dowsing & Reynolds’ office base was brimming with both.

So after nattering with the team for 15 minutes, taking some snaps, and discussing the “top secret” rusting process, I got my hands on the cable. And I went for the black and white fabric option as you just can’t go wrong with monochrome. I’ve just ordered two pieces of cut to size perspex. That cost me £4. Not bad. I might just make a lamp of out this emergency exit sign yet!

Really looking forward to seeing that light box all spruced up and with its fab new fabric cable, I really love the idea of creating your own lighting options & the Dowsing & Reynolds site is like a sweetie shop for interiors addicts like us! xx